Verification record
FXCM review
The entity behind FXCM, its licence, and how to confirm both yourself.
Last checked
FXCM is a real firm and not an outright scam, though enough is unverified here that we would want the gaps closed before recommending it. Regulated by FCA (217689); ASIC (AFSL 309763); CySEC (392/20); FSCA (FSP 46534), offering Trading Station, TradingView, MetaTrader 4.
Our rating
One rating, identical across our sites - only the way it is shown changes. It averages six assessments: regulation, trading costs, platforms, markets, support and education.
Regulation and safety
- Regulated by
- FCA (217689); ASIC (AFSL 309763); CySEC (392/20); FSCA (FSP 46534)
- Regulator tier
- Tier 1
- Register entry
- FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 217689
- Client money segregated
- Yes
- Held at
- Regulated banking institutions
- Negative balance protection
- Yes for eligible retail clients
- Compensation scheme
- FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; ICF up to €20,000 for eligible CySEC clients
- Audited by
- Independent external auditors
- Not available to
- United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and other jurisdictions where FXCM does not accept retail clients or services are restricted
A licence is the first thing a fake broker cannot produce, so it is the first thing to check.
FXCM holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC, FCA and CySEC. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.
ASIC caps retail leverage at 1:30, requires negative balance protection, and obliges the broker to hold client money in a separate trust account.
The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
CySEC licences passport across the EU and follow the 1:30 retail leverage cap, with the Investor Compensation Fund covering eligible claims.
Check the licence yourself: the FCA Register, ASIC Connect, the CySEC register of investment firms, the FSCA list of regulated entities.
The company behind the brand
- Legal entity
- Stratos Markets Limited
- Company number
- 04072877
- Headquarters
- London, United Kingdom
- Founded
- 1999
- Publicly listed
- No
- Parent company
- Stratos Group / Jefferies Financial Group
- Employees
- 500+
- Also trades as
- FXCM; Forex Capital Markets
Deposits and withdrawals
- Deposit methods
- Visa, Mastercard, bank transfer, Skrill, Neteller and regional electronic payment methods
- Withdrawal methods
- Bank transfer, credit/debit card, Skrill, Neteller and applicable original funding methods
- Deposit time
- Cards/e-wallets generally instant; bank wire typically 1-5 business days
- Withdrawal time
- Usually processed within 1-2 business days; settlement depends on method
- Minimum withdrawal
- $50 for bank wire; lower/no minimum for some electronic methods
- Local payment methods
- Jurisdiction-specific bank transfer and electronic payment methods
What it costs to trade
- Spread from
- 0.0 pips
- EUR/USD spread
- Approx. 1.2 pips, Standard
- GBP/USD spread
- Approx. 1.4 pips, Standard
- Commission
- $0 Standard; commission applies to Active Trader pricing
- All-in cost, EUR/USD
- Approx. 1.2 pips, Standard
- Spread type
- Variable
- Overnight swap
- Both: overnight financing may be charged or credited
- Inactivity fee
- $50/year after 12 months inactivity
- Deposit fee
- None internally for standard methods
- Withdrawal fee
- Card withdrawals generally free; bank-wire fees may apply
- Currency conversion
- Conversion at applicable exchange rate
Costs matter less than whether you can withdraw, but an offer that looks impossible usually is.
A quoted spread from 0.0 pips is a raw-spread figure, which almost always means a separate commission per lot. Compare the two together - a "zero spread" account with a high commission can cost more than a wider spread with none.
Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.
FXCM lists a minimum deposit of $50. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.
Accounts
- Minimum deposit
- $50
- Account types
- Standard, Active Trader, Professional, Corporate, Islamic/Swap-Free, Demo
- Account currencies
- USD, EUR, GBP
- Islamic account
- Yes
- Demo account
- Yes
- Professional account
- Yes
- Minimum trade size
- 0.01 lots / 1,000 currency units
- Time to open
- Typically a few minutes
Markets and execution
- Markets
- Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies, Crypto baskets, Stock baskets
- Currency pairs
- 40+
- Total instruments
- 400+
- Crypto CFDs
- Yes
- Maximum leverage
- 1:400
- Execution model
- Agency / No Dealing Desk with principal execution depending on product/entity
- Execution speed
- Approx. 20ms
- Order types
- Market, limit, stop, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop, OCO, entry orders
- Servers
- Global financial data centres including New York and London
Leverage up to 1:400 is available on this entity. High leverage does not increase your expected return - it increases position size for the same deposit, and shortens the move needed to close you out.
FXCM covers forex, shares, indices, commodities, cryptocurrencies, crypto baskets, stock baskets. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.
Funding options: visa, mastercard, bank transfer, skrill, neteller and regional electronic payment methods. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.
Platforms and tools
- Platforms
- Trading Station, TradingView, MetaTrader 4
- Own platform
- Yes, Trading Station
- Mobile app
- Both proprietary and third-party
- Browser trading
- Yes
- Automated trading
- Yes, MT4 Expert Advisors and Trading Station automation
- Copy trading
- Yes, third-party/social trading integrations
- Indicators
- 50+ Trading Station indicators; 100+ through TradingView; MT4 custom indicators supported
- Third-party tools
- TradingView, MetaTrader 4, Capitalise.ai
- API access
- Yes, REST API, FIX API and ForexConnect
MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.
TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.
Support and education
- Support hours
- 24/5
- Contact channels
- Live chat, email, phone, WhatsApp/SMS in supported regions
- Languages
- Multilingual
- Telephone
- +44 20 7398 4050
- info@fxcm.co.uk
- Live chat response
- Typically under 2 minutes
- Education
- Extensive: forex education, platform tutorials, webinars, trading guides, videos and educational articles
- Research
- Extensive: Market News, technical analysis, trading signals, market scanners, analyst commentary and quantitative tools
Questions people ask about FXCM
Is FXCM a real registered company?
Yes. At FXCM, the company you would be contracting with is Stratos Markets Limited, registered as 04072877 and based in London, United Kingdom. A registration number is checkable in the register of the country that issued it, and a broker that will not give you one is telling you something.
Is FXCM regulated, and by whom?
FXCM holds FCA (217689); ASIC (AFSL 309763); CySEC (392/20); FSCA (FSP 46534), which we grade as tier 1. A licence number is the part worth checking, because it is the thing a cloned site copies and the thing the regulator's register will not confirm.
Does FXCM trade under any other names?
FXCM also appears as FXCM and Forex Capital Markets. This matters when you are checking a licence or a warning list, because a search for one name will not always find what was published about another.